


Warmth Of Body and Soul

by Nocturnal_Daydreams



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Awkwardness, F/M, Fluff, Huddling For Warmth, Pining Caleb Widogast, Pining Jester Lavorre, Sleepy Cuddles, Spiders, Sweet, i may two-shot this, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:07:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27717923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nocturnal_Daydreams/pseuds/Nocturnal_Daydreams
Summary: The moors get awful cold at night and they're short on spells, can Jester convince Caleb to keep her warm? Will she understand why a mere look at his face warms her into blushes?
Relationships: Jester Lavorre/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 2
Kudos: 53





	Warmth Of Body and Soul

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brunetta6](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brunetta6/gifts).



After dinner Jester was drawing for the Traveller, her back pressed against a tree trunk. The sun was just passed sunset and the beautiful pinks and purples painted the horizon as if to decorate the two moons shining in the sky.

Everyone was settling in for the night in the amber glow of the dome, sorting out the watch shift. With how beautiful tonight was she could stay up all night but at least put herself in for one. They decided for 4 shifts singular people with wake-up back-ups. Hers was at the darkest of night. She grabbed the chalks she had picked up recently and she gave herself into drawing the sunset in the chalk, before settling down to sleep.

It had been a long, exhausting and wonderful day and before she knew it she was in dreamland, dreaming of sewing herself a cloak in velvet green amongst a beautiful sunset with the sounds of the Nichodranas sea accompanying her on her quest.

“Nearly there, you’re doing so good.” A calm, accented voice encouraged, “now you just need to…”

The voice faded off and yet she didn’t look up from her embroidery, “Pardon?”

The voice melted into another, “Now you just need to wake up.”

“Wake up?” She felt the velvet fall from her hands and her whole body stir.

“Wake up, Jester.”

The dream world faded away, thankfully quite pleasantly, not an often occurrence and her eyes blinked open. Caduceus was kneeling over her with a kind smile and a small shake of the shoulder. Her sleeping bag was heavy and warm but all of her that was outside of it understood immediately why he had a blanket shawl around his shoulders.

“Hi, Cad.” 

“Hi, Jester. It’s your watch, just try not to wake him, yeah?”

She blinked a little and looked at him quizzically. He nodded behind her.

Slowly, she looked down and then turned around a little to find pale arms dressed in a warm coat and a familiar ginger spooning her for warmth. She felt herself blush a deep purple then held back a little laugh of amusement to how cute he looked and how embarrassed she was that her keenness showed upon her face for Caduceus to see. Yet he didn’t react, only with his kind smile. He extended an arm to help her out so she carefully shimmied out of her bag and away from Caleb’s warm, firm hold on her.

She felt the cold straight away, it shot through her and she knew immediately Cad was putting a brave face on it.

Caleb stirred a little when his arm finally dropped to the floor but not enough to wake. She smiled at his sleeping form then skimmed her eyes across the party. It was then she remembered of the young boy who had stole the sleeping bag, leaving them one short and handed the one she was using to Cad.

“No, no, Jester, keep yourself warm.”

“I’m cold resistant, Caduceus. You’re not. Now take the bag.”

His eyes narrowed in humour but he took it all the same, settling in an empty space to sleep a little while longer. Jester leaned over to put another log on the fire then sat back to where she was before, barely out of Caleb’s grasp. Even in here the wind was chilly enough that the fire barely made a change. 

She rubbed her hands together and watched out across the land. Everything was waving in the wind but nothing out of the normal seemed to be going on. She cursed enlarged bugs for their lack of mansion and warmth but couldn’t truly be that mad with how beautiful the two moons hung overhead. A little movement by her knees brought her head down. There was Caleb’s hand. It wasn’t quite close enough to her knee to be touching but only barely. It was enough to feel the warmth of him and in there she had her answer, he was trying to be warm too. She stalled a moment, what did she mean? She wasn’t asking a question, what did she need an answer for? She shook it off and watched the horizon, eyes scanning the land, trying to ignore the niggle that feeling only the slightest hint of warmth left her with.

It was barely a couple of minutes before she gave in. She shimmied the slightest bit closer and instinctively Caleb’s arm, wrapped around as much of her as his sleeping form could manage, which was her left knee. Her heart raced but when she looked down and saw his sleeping form, it calmed a little more and she felt like watching him all night. A dangerous thought so she looked back up, a minute later a sound of a twig breaking preceded an obscenely large spider walking with its prey towards a cave. She felt the family love as she saw smaller spiders going around the larger in giddy movements which turned to slight disgust when they began to swarm the baby deer.

Such was the circle of life, she supposed but hearing the clacks sent a little shiver up her body. That seemed to be too much of a movement though as Caleb blinked awake and immediately began retracting his arms. Instinctively, she shivered against the cold once more, just as another cold breeze.

“Jeez, it is a cool night, Jester,” He said, shivering a smidge and pulling up his sleeping bag a little more, then sleepily asking her, “Are you okay?”

“Yes, just cursing that kid.”

“Would you like my jacket?”

“No, no. You are far too cold and squishy. Can’t lose my wizard.” She replied with a smile, facing away from him to put another log on the fire, wide-eyed as soon as she realised she said my and not our. She really should watch her tongue.

“Well, I could sleep beside you to heat up your leg.”

“Thank you. Although…”

“Yeah?”

“If, you sat between my lap I can make you warmer with a hug and you can keep me heated with your presence.”

“I’m not the warmest.”

“But squishy and my block from the wind.”

“What if you see something?”

“You’re the one I have to wake up.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea, Jester.”

“Okay, if you don’t think so…” 

She wanted to be swallowed up by the world but smiled at him all the less. To her surprise he was even more expressive than normal, a look of temptation, hesitation and his eyes blinked so tiredly. She dropped her common happy mask and looked at him with truth; begging.

“You think it’s a good idea though?”

“I do. One of the best I’ve had.” She beamed and he almost fell back asleep with a smile on his face, but blinked it away again. 

“Fine, but not getting out of this. And you take my gloves.”

“Done.”

It took a little finagling but he sat between her legs and a prop up between her knee and her arm gave him a spot to rest his head that wasn’t her shoulder which he insisted would be detrimental to putting wood on the fire. It wasn’t, he was worried of laying upon her properly and as she wondered why her heart began to race once more. She willed herself to calm and put a testing piece of wood on the fire, Caleb rolled a little in his spot with her movements but hummed happily and declared his point proven so she insisted he sleep. Usually she knew, that amount of touch would have him sparked awake but he’d had a long week so before she knew it he was asleep again.

Her eyes scanned the horizon and the land, nothing more than the wind and the Moorish life up here. The moons looked closer at this land, they looked so beautiful. The party slept happily, even Caleb’s sleep seemed less disturbed.

When they first began traveling she could tell his dreams and his sleep were not very willing to behave. His brow furrowed more in his sleep than his wake and it was often around in his conscious self. Time and help and tea had done wonders. While he still dreamed of it, it wasn’t constant any more. 

She was glad, Caleb was beautiful, it was undeniable but he had tranquillity in good rest. He was very emotive even if strangers didn’t always see it and while she’d be worried to see this tranquillity state in his waking mind it was nice to see that his sleep allowed him rest from constant swaying of emotions.

It was more than a quarter of an hour, possibly half, when she realised she really wasn’t as cold with him here with her. His face slowly changed to what looked like a rested amusement, his head nuzzling a little into her knee in his sleep.

“Nearly there, …doing so good. Now you just need to spin, Jester.” He murmured so low and broken and slow that she didn’t catch it beneath the sound of the fire crackling but she did. Her heart stopped and she kept her eyes on the land a little more to make sure no one was playing with her and this wasn’t Caleb. Her arm circled round him, loose as not to wake but protective. Of course, this was Caleb. He began counting 1, 2, 3- 1, 2, 3, - in Zemnian and she knew then he was dreaming of the waltz they had. She wondered if he often dreamed of it. He’d been moving a little through this time, and stilled a little. She wondered if he came to the part that embarrassed him so and swayed him a little. It seemed not, as he started swaying again just before her.

“It’s okay, Caleb. I liked the dance.” She whispered, leaning to him, hoping his dreams heard it.

A large bird cawed overhead and when she looked up, it seemed to be doing laps of the cave. Eyes front and centre.

“Always say that.” His broken sleep words said, she realised he was still swaying. The bird moved on, “Should tell - love, dancing, you, Jester.”

He was asleep. She knew that. She couldn’t not say it though, “I love dancing with you too, Caleb.”

He hummed happily in his sleep and she rested her head on his shoulder to regulate her breathing. In this time he moved to her shoulder and surprised her, terribly.

His quiet voice uttered one last bit, “Always too sweet…. Jester… Mein L…”

His words faded from small disconnected, broken whispers to a quiet snore that still almost made her jump. Slowly, she leaned back up but he would not be budged from her shoulder. She had to give it a try for awake-Caleb. But made barely enough room for his small cushion. After a few different leans he found the right angle and stopped snoring. She suddenly felt a lot more hot than any cold but felt glad on it and kept her eyes scanning the moors wondering what he nearly said in his sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't usually end so open-ended but I actually like where it stops and it's enough I could play another chapter in but she's getting hints - Hope you like!


End file.
